History, Mission + Governance

RISD’s 16 Previous Presidents | 1877–2013

A designer and passionate advocate for the role of design in technology, John Maeda elevated RISD’s reputation worldwide while strengthening its operational foundations and spearheading record-breaking fundraising for scholarships. Promoting the acronym STEAM, he led a growing effort to add art to the national agenda promoting improved STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, believing that art and design are poised to transform world economies in the 21st century just as science and technology did in the 20th century.

During his 15-year tenure,
President Mandle led RISD’s first comprehensive capital campaign, along with
the effort to expand and reorient the college and museum toward downtown
Providence. The Future by Design capital campaign raised a total of $105.46
million to increase funding for scholarships, academic and museum programs, and
construction of the Chace Center, a mixed-use facility that opened in 2008.
Earlier in his career, Mandle served as deputy director of the National Gallery
of Art, director of the Toledo [OH] Museum of Art and associate director of the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Thomas Schutte holds an MBA from
Indiana University and a PhD in Business Administration from the University of
Colorado/Boulder. He has spent the majority of his career in top leadership
positions at art schools, serving as president of Philadelphia College of Art
from 1975–83 and as president of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY since 1993.
While at RISD, he oversaw a $20-million renovation and expansion of the
college’s physical plant, along with the creation of an Academic Computing
Center and the restructuring of finance and other administrative areas of
operations.

A painter and professor, Lee Hall
served as dean of Visual Arts at the State University of New York/Purchase
before being appointed president. At RISD she is remembered for instituting the
annual President’s Fellows Awards gala in New York City and for serving during
a period of conflict and reform on campus that included a successful move by
faculty to unionize. Hall maintained a painting studio at her farm in Lyme, CT
and frequently exhibited her paintings at the Betty Parsons Gallery in NYC,
where she became a partner after resigning from RISD in 1983.